20 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book I. 



in this way, it produces a change upon another Body ; yet, as it does 

 not produce this change, except when it is aded upon, it muft be 

 toniidered as ftill pafTive, and not adive ; for nothing is truly adive 

 that docs not ad of itfelf without being aded upon. And, therefore, 

 even wlicn Body moves Body, it does not, properly fpeaking, ad, 

 but is only aded upon ; and the Motion of the other Body is only 

 the confequence of the firft Body being aded upon ; fo that, if the 

 motion begun by Mind were to be propagated through never fo ma- 

 ny Bodies, all thefe Bodies would only be aded upon, but could not 

 be faid to ad, and would be no more than inftruments which the 

 Mind employs to move, not movers themfelves. Mind, therefore, is 

 ti'uly the only adive principle in the Univerfe ; and Body ads no 

 more than the lever that moves the ftone, or the tool ufed by the 

 artift. 



And, to fliow ftill more plainly the perfed paflivity of Matter, it 

 i-s to be obferved, that even the cohefion of Matter, by which it is 

 quantity continuous, not difcrete, and to which it owes its quality of 

 Refiftance, is the operation of Mind ; fo that, though no doubt it 

 be a fubftancc by itfdf, yet it cannot be faid to have any qualities 

 but what it derives from Mind. 



Nothing, therefore, is more true than what Proclus has faid in the 

 Second Book of his Commentary upon the Timaeus, * That every 



* thing that ads is incorporeal ; for, though it be Body which ads, 



* it is by incorporeal powers that it ads *.' 



Before 



-Ami I am very happy to "be able to f^y, tb.it Dr Ilorflcy perfccl'y agrees with mc 

 in the feiife that 1 have given to this axiom. 



• I hr.ve quoted the words in a note upon p. 73. Vol. I. 



